For decades, the homelessness-serving sector has taken a one-size-fits-all approach to providing services and emergency shelter to those in need. This approach has led to marginalization of women and gender-diverse people and an invisibilization of their unique experiences. What research we do have on women and gender-diverse people’s homelessness vastly underestimates its scale—and that means they’re undercounted in data, research, and PiT Counts. Given the scarcity of intersectional disaggregated data, women and gender-diverse people are not getting the appropriate services and support they need. 

What we do know is grim.

Despite the documented violence and trauma that women and their children face on the streets, each day many are turned away from domestic violence and homelessness shelters due to capacity issues. One in five returns to live with their abuser. About 41% of gender-diverse people report having experiences of discrimination and/or judgment from staff at homeless shelters or drop-ins. This is just a few of the many experiences of homelessness that are unique to women and gender-diverse people. 

Meanwhile, emergency shelters – including co-ed shelters, gender-specific shelters, and shelters for women fleeing violence – are frequently overwhelmed and operating beyond their capacity due to chronic underfunding coupled with a deepening housing need across the country.

In an effort to address these issues, the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network partnered with the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights and the National Right to Housing Network to deliver national standards that adopt a rights-based and gender-sensitive approach with hopes to improve emergency shelter service and delivery for these under-served populations while also highlighting the essential funding, resources and supports emergency shelters require from governmental bodies.